"Breaking the silence: How youth, adults overcame cultural stigmas against depression and got help"

""I was convinced I had to be perfect, not only in school but socially. When I felt sad I convinced myself that I was a cry baby and could get over it. A lot of my depression came from me beating myself up. I really did not like myself," she said. "The people who I at the time considered my friends were particularly hurtful. There was a constant pressure to look good, be thin, get the best clothes and ace tests. I had to have it all, down to keeping my hair perfectly in place, or nothing."

The pressure continued even at San Francisco State. The summer before her junior year she attempted suicide. After recovering she was diagnosed with clinical depression and enrolled in La Selva, a mental health services clinic on California Avenue in Palo Alto that's part of the Momentum Health Group.

For too many people like Thomas and Dolph, what exacerbates their despair is not so much depression, which thanks to decades of research is treatable, but their reluctance to seek help, according to James Millsap, executive director of La Selva. Simply put, many people who should, and could, be receiving effective treatment are not.

"Something stops them. What stops them is not only their condition, which saps their energy and willingness to reach out, but also things they hear on the television set and the people around them that people with mental illnesses are crazy, dangerous, losers, weak or whatever. So then the solution is to start hiding what they feel and that ultimately leads to tragedy. That is the real enemy out there: It's stigma," he said."

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2015/05/15/breaking-the-silence-how-youth-adults-overcame-cultural-stigmas-against-depression-and-got-help